Length (in time) of Football Games since 2008

theballguy · Dec 28, 2014

Al A Bama said:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...ength-of-college-football-games-a-5980583.php

"Balloning game length a growing concern: Era of record scoring responsible for average jumping 14 minutes since 2008, to 3 hours and 23 minutes"

This article from the Houston Chronicle shows the increased length of games. "The NCAA Football Rules Committee expects to discuss the issue when it meets in February," according to Rogers Redding.

There has been a gradual 14 minute increase since 2008. I guess more plays, maybe more TV timeouts for commercials, etc. Looks like games would be shorter since the clock still runs after catching a pass and running out of bounds unless it's less than 2 minutes in the quarter. I do still want that clock to stop on 1st downs. I hope they don't change that rule. Otherwise it could keep a team from coming back and winning in the last minute or tying (like Bama vs LSU). I wonder if they considered the number of games going into overtime.

The reason I really posted this was because I have DVRed at least 2 games this year where when I reviewed the games I was not able to see the end of those games. The DVRing had stopped while the game was still in progress.
1. Alabama vs Auburn (NOT an OT game)
2. Alabama vs LSU (An OT game)

I do have Comcast. When I initially DVRed these games as well as others, it ask if I wanted to extend the time by 30 minutes and I always do this. This didn't work in these two games.

So, for the SEC Championship games, I DVRed the games with an additional 30 minutes and DVRed the program that was to come after it: Wheel of Fortune. So, that way I got to go back and see the entire game with interviews of Coach Saban. I only hoped my wife didn't delete the Wheel of Fortune show listed on my DVRed programs.

Have any of the rest of you guys had this problem?

Simple. Too many commercials. All of them are guilty but CBS is the worst culprit. They'll NEVER cut that back though.

Crimson1967 · Dec 28, 2014

I understand missing the start of our game if another one runs over. But I am still mad our kickoff got bumped so they could show a press conference after a NASCAR race.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JDCrimson · Dec 28, 2014

CrimsonForce said:
One idea would to be just skip the extra point. After a touchdown have the next play be the kickoff unless the scoring team wanted to go for two. 99% of extra points are made so it's pretty pointless to go through the process of kicking one after every touchdown. I think it would add up to a lot of time saved, especially in high scoring games..

Why do we want to continue to water down the game by eliminating certain parts of play to shorten the game? I am not targeting you but something like this is what will happen unfortunately.

The new clock rules designed to shorten the game in the first place was what started all this. The new clock rules ushered in the HUNH and increased scoring. More scoring means more changes in possession which equal more plays subject to review, more player injury timeouts etc which just creates more commercial opportunities.

But we can't go back now. The end result to manage time will be to do as you suggest eliminate extra points, possibly eliminate kickoffs (the hey are unsafe anyway right?), and institute a continuously running clock. But scoring will just keep increasing more possessions more review more injuries etc. Look what would be given up just shorten the game back 20 minutes. It would be virtually impossible to make comeback on a kickoff return that changes field position.

What will end up happening is fans will start switching to pro football because it will still have all the components of a football game with in a controlled tempo and controlled amount of time.

The keepers of college football really need to sit down and look at where the game is going just because of one decision to go from a 25 second clock to 40 second clock.

CrimsonForce · Dec 28, 2014

JDCrimson said:
Why do we want to continue to water down the game by eliminating certain parts of play to shorten the game? I am not targeting you but something like this is what will happen unfortunately.

The new clock rules designed to shorten the game in the first place was what started all this. The new clock rules ushered in the HUNH and increased scoring. More scoring means more changes in possession which equal more plays subject to review, more player injury timeouts etc which just creates more commercial opportunities.

But we can't go back now. The end result to manage time will be to do as you suggest eliminate extra points, possibly eliminate kickoffs (the hey are unsafe anyway right?), and institute a continuously running clock. But scoring will just keep increasing more possessions more review more injuries etc. Look what would be given up just shorten the game back 20 minutes. It would be virtually impossible to make comeback on a kickoff return that changes field position.

What will end up happening is fans will start switching to pro football because it will still have all the components of a football game with in a controlled tempo and controlled amount of time.

The keepers of college football really need to sit down and look at where the game is going just because of one decision to go from a 25 second clock to 40 second clock.

First off, people are not ever going to stop watching college football because of more or less commercials or if extra points were (hypothetically) eliminated. I'm just saying if it was up to me, I wouldn't mind seeing the extra points done away with and at least give the receiving team of the kickoff with the option to just start at the 25 yard line. That way, after most touchdowns were scored they could just spot the ball at the 25 yard line and continue play instead of going through the extra point and kickoff. No one would stop watching college football over either one of those changes. BTW, it's really a pointless discussion because I think there is probably a 0% chance of college football or the NFL doing away with the extra points or kickoffs. I was just stating my opinion for the sake of discussion..

2003TIDE · Dec 28, 2014

TIDE-HSV said:
Yes, I have, with Comcast. The idea behind the new clock rule was to shorten the game. I knew that CBS would just seize the opportunity to squeeze in more commercials...

Seems like they all do. I'd like to see the numbers on TV commercial timeouts vs 10 or so years ago.

JeffAtlanta · Dec 28, 2014

CrimsonForce said:
First off, people are not ever going to stop watching college football because of more or less commercials or if extra points were (hypothetically) eliminated.

100% agreed, but I think his point was that people will stop watching college football because the game is trending to more resemble the NBA than the NFL.

I used to significantly prefer college football over the NFL, but the only games that I now care to watch are schools I'm an fan of (Alabama/GT) games. I'd much rather watch the more controlled nature of the NFL than the chaos that many college football games have become.

There is already mass confusion among the officials trying to accommodate the HUNH - they worry more about spotting the ball for the next play than getting into position to make the correct calls and maintain control of the game.

I'm not saying that we need to go back to 14-10 score games, but it would be nice for field position and the first half score to matter again.

Loam · Dec 28, 2014

Meanwhile, it seems like NFL games are shorter than ever. This is just happening at the College level it seems.

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Length (in time) of Football Games since 2008

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